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DP83640T-EVK: USB Doesn't Connect to Board

Part Number: DP83640T-EVK
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: ALP, DP83640

I just received a new DP83640T Eval Board and can’t connect to it with the Analog LaunchPAD Ethernet Integrity Software Utility I downloaded from TI. I installed the software and USB driver on a Win7 laptop. I am getting the error “No attached ALP based USB boards were detected”.

  • I have the same problem. I did run the ALPUSBDriver.exe ass in point 2 of the readme file.
  • Hi Tim and Wolfgang,

    I am looking into this. I will update you on what I find.

    Best Regards,
  • Rob,

    I found a post that said this ALP Software Utility doesn’t work on Win7 so I installed it on WinXP. The Software Utility now sees my DP83640 Eval Board but give me the error “Could not instantiate class DP83640_Nano_GUI from the following GUI device”.

    Tim

  • Works for me ok now on an WinXP PC.

    I can read registers without error messages

  • Hi Tim,

    Did you install the drivers from Cypress as explained in the readme files of the ALP?

    Best Regards,
  • Rob,

    Yes, I ran the ALPUSBDriver.exe program to install the drivers. It  sees the Eval board but gives me the error “Could not instantiate class DP83640_Nano_GUI from the following GUI device”.

    Tim

  • Tim,

    I just ordered the DP83640 Eval Board myself, but haven't gotten it in. I noticed that there are two different ALP software packages. There is the one on the development board page under software that links to snlc017.zip. This contains national_ALPF.exe and the readme. Sounds like this is what you installed and are having trouble with?

    I also see that on the development board page there is also a link to the ALP:
    http://www.ti.com/tool/alp

    that also provides an ALPF installer in the snlc048b.zip. I'm assuming this is a later version of ALP. There is no readme in the zip and once installing the software ,there is no driver EXE, but launching it without the board, it appears that it supports the DP83640 and DP83640 nano. Have you tried this version? I don't have a WinXP machine, so I'm hoping this later version works under Win7.
  • Alex,

    I was using the 1st one on the development board page. I was able to find a WinXP machine to install it on. I never tried the other one.

  • Yup. I got the boards in and came to the same conclusion as everyone else. WinXP is required with the ALP found on the dev board page. I had to dust off an old computer to get it working. I even went so far as to get in touch with Opal Kelly to see if they had an updated driver, but they bounced me back to TI.

  • Tim,

    This is a bit off topic, but since you seem to also be looking at this the same time I thought I would ask you a question that i just posted about not being able to get boards discovered using the EPLTestApp or PTPTestApp that came with the dev environment.

    I believe that I have my test environment set up correctly.

    -I'm on a WinXP.

    -Python 2.4 appears to be executing correctly.

    -I have VC++ 2008 Express installed

    -I'm using National Analog LaunchPAD and I'm able to see my two boards and change register values.

    However, when I run either EPLTestApp.exe or PTPTestApp.exe or testit.cmd in .\tools\python\EPLTest no boards are discovered. I have copied the _epl.dll and okFrontPanel.dll in with the EXE, but still only get a 'Scan Complete!' without anything found.

    I'm sure I'm doing something dumb, but nothing else is obvious. Thanks.

  • After digging a bit, it appears the Opal Kelly drivers aren't needed and instead there is a Cypress driver that is used. Because of this, the source code needs to be changed and recompiled. The EPL_ENUM_TYPE needs to change from EPL_ENUM_DIRECT to EPL_ENUM_CYUSB_MDIO. For example, in EPLTestApp, the function EPLEnumDevice needs to be updated to function correctly.